


Mister Captain Hero Sir!

by Skiewrites



Series: A Big Bag of LU Fics... [4]
Category: Linked Universe - Fandom, The Legend of Zelda & Related Fandoms, The Legend of Zelda: A Link Between Worlds, The Legend of Zelda: Hyrule Warriors
Genre: ??? - Freeform, Angst, Fluff, Funny, Gen, Linked Universe (Legend of Zelda), Not Beta Read, Warriors (Linked Universe) Angst, crackish, why isn't that a tag, written during a lw
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-06-24
Updated: 2020-11-12
Packaged: 2021-03-03 21:35:46
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 10
Words: 21,699
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/24902443
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Skiewrites/pseuds/Skiewrites
Summary: Ravio decided that, upon stumbling into Warriors world, that he needed a nickname, but since 'Mr Hero' was taken by his boyfriend (sort of? not really... it's complicated okay!), then he would have to come up with a new one. Mister Captain Hero Sir fits the bill.It's a shame that Warriors hated the name.
Series: A Big Bag of LU Fics... [4]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1769746
Comments: 98
Kudos: 328





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> This is inspired by a 2am conversation in the discord, and special thanks to Cerame, who came up with the phrase 'Mister Captain Hero Sir' along with the plot of the second half of this fic.

Link stared at the situation in front of him before letting out a huge sigh.

When he said he wanted to join the army, he meant it in the 'I want to become a really important person so that I won't be remembered as the small baker's boy who liked to flirt with the seamstress's daughter' kinda way, not the 'I accidentally created a war across time and space because a woman who I've never met got the hots for me and is upset that I'm not gonna date her' kinda way, but he's learned to roll with the punches. Sure, there's a twelve year old that ran around with dangerous masks and only listened to him, but he was pretty cool, and sure, the imp was a little annoying with how close her insults cut, and sure, monsters coming out of dark portals was getting a little bit old now, but he was getting used to it!

Then a man dressed as a purple bunny just had to fall out of a wall and start yelling and throwing bombs at anything that moved on the battlefield.

Thankfully, the guy seemed to be on their side, if the amazingly creative insults to the commander of the other army was anything to go by, but it was hard to tell these days what side someone was on.

So Link had decided to question the guy after they had won the battle, just to see if they can find out what time period he was from and get him back to his own time, but it seemed that a couple of soldiers had gotten there first, and by the looks of it, they were not pleased with what they had heard, holding their swords to the guy's neck and yelling at him to tell the truth.

"Put the sword down," Link ordered as he arrived as the scene, his scarf feeling uncomfortably tight around his neck as he looked at the situation.

"But sir! He may be Dark Link in disguise!" Link raised his eyebrows at the soldier. The man in front of them covered his face had his hands raised in the air in surrender, was shaking and looking like he was about to cry.

"Sure." Link growled out in frustration, rubbing his temples in hopes to elevate the pressure building up. He apricated the effort that they had, he really did, but this was getting stupid. Last week they tried to light up the entirety of the barracks to get rid of all the shadows so that Dark Link couldn't attack them in their sleep.

Everyone used to tell Link before he joined the army that it was filled with brave men. He wished that they had also told him that said brave men only had a single braincell.

"Dark Link really thought that we're going to believe that if he ran around a battlefield with a couple of bombs and a hammer that we would really believe him?" Link asked the men, who lowered their swords slightly at the question as they thought about it.

"So you believe us?" One of the men asked, raising his sword back up, the bunny man letting out a squeak.

"No!" Link took in a deep breath and held it for five seconds. Nothing would get done if he started to yell at them for their stupidity after all. "Report to Impa and get started on setting up camp for tonight."

"But Dark Link-"

"On the Goddess's soul- that isn't Dark Link! Now get out of my sight before I put all of you on Mask duty!" The men were quick to scamper off, which Link thought was a bit of a shame. Mask would love it if he was allowed to terrorise some of the soldiers.

"Oh thank you so much! I really thought I was going to end up in a place that my boyfriend was never going to find and then I would have to save myself, which is highly unromantic if you ask me." The bunny man said as he brushed off non-existent dust from his sleeve before fiddling with his own scarf, making sure that it did not drag against the floor.

"What?" Link asked, staring at the man who a few seconds ago had been shaking and on the verge of tears.

"Yeah, he's not really comfortable with dark portals and jumping to new worlds, and he would have a go at me when he realises what I've done, as if I don't already do that when I want to go and have tea with Hilda." He explained as if there was nothing wrong with his explanation, and that it made total logical sense.

"Who are you?" Link asked, putting his arms on his hips and using his 'Captain' voice as Mask called it.

"I am the one and only Ravio, merchant of all things with magical and destructive capabilities, sometimes even both!" The newly named Ravio bowed low in front of Link, so low that his bunny ears touched the floor, before quickly lifting himself back up to face Link. So fast in fact that Link wondered how he managed to get his hood to stay on his head without the action whipping it back and revealing his face.

"And do I get to know the name of my newest hero?" He asked.

"It's Link." Link replied slowly, wondering if he should even give his name to the eccentric man.

"Link! Link Link Link, now that's not going to work, no, that's not going to work at all..." Ravio started to mutter underneath his breath, pacing around and ignoring the look of complete confusion that was slapped onto Link's face and refused to fall off.

"What's wrong with my name?" Link asked, crossing his arms over his chest.

"What isn't wrong with your name!? I'm sorry but that name is reserved for my boyfriend and my boyfriend only, you're going to have to get another name my friend." Ravio explained, like that reason affected Link in any sort of way.

"Well, your boyfriend isn't here so it doesn't matter that we share the same name," Link explained, even though it did kind of matter because there was never someone called Link that wasn't a hero, and they already had a hero helping in the war (though that could be debated as Mask's pranks on the men were not the most helpful of things, even if it did make everyone smile) and he had learned quite recently that asking for help was never a bad thing.

He never implied that he actually had a brain cell, because after all, he was one of the brave men in the army.

"You never know with Mr Hero, he turns up in the strangest of places for the weirdest reasons. I've learned to never question him and his actions." Ravio explained. "He is supposed to be on holiday in Hytopia, but that's never stopped him before."

"...Right." Link said, even though the reasoning made no sense to him whatsoever. He had never heard of a place called Hytopia before, but that was the issues when you fought in a war that spanned over a couple of different timelines, according to Lana at least.

"Okay, so tell me about yourself!" Ravio asked as they started to walk in the direction that Link sent his men.

"Uh, I'm the hero of this era and the current barer of the Triforce of Courage?" Link said, only to frown at Ravio when he let out a snort.

"Pff, barer of the Triforce of Courage? Hate to break it to you buddy but holding one of the golden triangles doesn't make you special."

"But Ganondorf and Cia want the full power of the Triforce, I'd say it's pretty important." Link argued, though he could feel Ravio rolling his eyes underneath his hood.

"Anyone can hold a piece of the Triforce if they don't mind being completely consumed by the power it holds and being ripped apart right down to the molecular level. You're not special because Lolia made you to be able to withstand the power of a Goddess." There was a lot to unwrap in that, so Link decided to move on.

"I like the colour blue?"

"So does 40% of the male population of Lorule." Where the fuck was Lorale? Link had never heard of it before. 

"I'm a Captain of the army?"

"You're a bit young for that aren't you?"

 _It’s not like they had a choice._ The thought rushed though his mind too fast for him to dismiss it. It’s not like they had a choice with his promotion. Half of the higher ups had stabbed them in the back, the castle was under siege, the princess was still missing, and he was their only option. Of course, he didn’t realise how desperate they had been until after he pulled the Master Sword for its pedestal. Impa had needed a right hand man who wasn’t going to stab her in the back when she turned around, and a newbie who knew his way around a sword had been her best option.

No wonder why they were losing.

“Yes. Yes I am.” Link growled out.

"Okay, well, I think I can work with that..." Ravio replied, slowly, before pacing around, a finger to his lips as he entered deep thought. Link kept a small smile on his face for the first minute before he furrowed his eyebrows, finnally realising how serious this guy was taking his new nickname to be. After the two minute mark, Link decided that it would be fine to let his mind wonder as the guy thought. After five minutes he wondered what chaos Mask had gotten up to, coming up with wild and wacky scenarios that he wouldn't be surprised to find the youngster in.

"I can call you 'Mister Captain Hero Sir'!'" Ravio said with a smile, snapping Link out of daze.

"What?"

"Mister Captain Hero Sir."

"No, I got that bit..." Link said as they finally arrived at the camp. "But that's a very long nickname, don't you think."

"Not at all, Mister Captain Hero Sir, because it fits you perfectly and you have to admit that it rolls off the tongue like it was truly meant to be." Link hummed with the explanation. He wasn't sure why anyone would pick a name that had six more syllables in it than someone's original name, especially when their name was something as easy as 'Link', but sure.

"And pray tell me why it's 'Mister Captain Hero Sir'?" Link asked. The headache that was coming on earlier was now in full force, and the only thing he really wanted to do was sit in his tent by himself in the dark.

But it wasn't going to be dark because the soldiers were going to light it up to 'scare Dark Link away', and it wasn't going to be quiet because Mask will appear and tell him about what happened on the battlefield and how many people he's scared today with his masks, which was, admittedly funny, but rather annoying when he was just trying to sleep.

"Oh there's no need to pray Mister Captain Hero Sir," Already the nickname was making him want to grind his teeth, but Link stopped himself, it will not sooth his headache after all, "But it's already costed you 300 rupees for the nickname and it's gonna be another 500 if you want me to explain it."

Link closed his eyes and took a deep breath.

He was done for today.

"That's Impa's tent. Just tell her that I sent you." Link pointed to a random tent with no idea if it was actually Impa's tent or not before making a beeline to his own tent, crawling into his own sleeping bag and sighing as he pressed his head against the rock hard pillow.

Someone should have warned him that this would happen before he joined the army. He's not sure if it would have stopped him from joining, he doubted he would even believe it, but the forewarning would have been nice.


	2. Chapter 2

Link wakes up feeling heavier than he's used to.

His first thought is that he slept in his armour *again*, and he let out a groan at the thought, but then the weight moves, shimmying from his stomach to higher up on his chest, and Link lets out a sigh of relief at the movement, moving his hand towards the messy hair that was now underneath his chin and smoothing it down in a way that wouldn't wake Mask up from his light slumber.

It was rare to Mask to go to sleep without any arguments or bribery involved, but after the battle yesterday and the lack of sleep in the last couple of days building up to the battle, Link doesn't find himself surprised to wake up with the kid nested on his lap, clinging onto his clothes like a lifeline. A quick peak confirmed his suspicion of Skull Kid sleeping on a mat next to him, with three glowing fairies located around the three of them, their glowing forms lighting up the room that would make his soldiers proud.

Of course, they had a tent of their own, as no one really felt comfortable forcing the kids into sharing a tent with the older soldiers. Others have offered theirs to them, but Mask refused to even go near Ruto and Darunia, let alone share a tent with people who said that they knew him. However, that tent was rarely used, especially when one of them was a tree imp and the other claimed to have lived in the woods for most of his life.

Link had no idea what made him so different, why Mask allowed him to share the same space while the other slept, but Link didn't look a gift horse in the mouth and instead stayed completely still and took in the silence that surrounded him, a rare treat.

It wasn't rare that he got to sleep in after all, and Mask was the perfect excuse, with that baby face of his.

Not that he would ever say that aloud of course. He didn't have a death wish, despite contrary opinion.

So of course, five minutes later, there's a sound of something exploding, and Link only hopes it's the engineers doing something that went a little bit wrong and not someone insulting a cucco within Linkle's hearing.

The sound woke the other occupants of the tent, with the fairies rushing out of the tent to see what the problem was, Skull Kid letting out a sneeze as he sat up and looked around, and Mask letting off a string of inventive insults (that contained no cursing, which was strange, as Link had always placed Mask as someone who would be swearing left right and centre but it seemed that he didn't know any until he fell out of a dark portal and picked up some from the soldiers) as he flung himself to the other corner of the room, pretending that he was not sleeping on top of Link five seconds ago.

Link rolled his eyes at Mask's actions before quickly changing into the famously green tunic and blue scarf, muttering his morning prayers as he picked up the Master Sword and left the tent to see what the commotion was, the kids following behind him.

The incident was not in fact anything to do with Linkle, but the newcomer from the battle before.

Thankfully, Link did not have to save Ravio from a bunch of soldiers who were convinced he was Dark Link, but Link tensed his jaw as he looked at the gathering crowd, and wondered if he should just intervene anyways, because Link could taste the magic building up in the air, and that was never a good sign.

"-And this is the famous Sand Rod! With this bad boy you can raise a pillar of dirt in front of you." Ravio demonstrated by giving the rod a well-practiced twirl in front of him, and before him a tower of dirt rose high, staying there for a minute before falling back down again. The crowd was silent, and by the way that Ravio's turned to the side, clearly not the reaction he was looking for.

"And how is that useful?" One of the soldiers called out from the back of the crowd. Ravio lowered his rod to ponder about the question for a second, before smiling widely and waving the rod around, making the soldiers nearest to him duck in fear of being hit.

"Right, well, say you're lost in a dungeon that a pretty little sage is stuck in, and-"

"They don't have dungeons here!" Everyone turned to look at Mask, who rolled his eyes at the staring, clearly haven gotten used to it for being the literal twelve year old who helped the military in a way that Link knew would be erased from the history books, if only historians didn't question the crown's mortality in the centuries to come.

"What do you mean 'there's no dungeons here'? There's always dungeons!" Ravio said, as if that explained anything.

"Nope. There's no dungeons or temples of shrines or anything of the like. Just a good old fashioned war." Mask said with a sigh of disappointment. The crowd slowly started to disperse while the pair talked, but Link was rooted into place with deep confusion. Dungeons? Temples? Shrines? Why did none of this make sense?

"Not even a creepy cave that hides lots of rupees and a cool artefact or item?" Ravio asked, sadness heavy in his voice.

"Not even one." Mask replied.

"What in the Goddess's sacred name are you guys on about?" Link asked, turning to where he last saw Skull Kid in hopes that he would explain the others' strange ways, only to realise that he had disappeared, taking the three fairies with him. Link hoped that he didn't get into too much trouble by himself, but he had more important things to do at the moment.

"But Mr Hero said that there was always dungeons or temples or shrines or creepy caves involved during an adventure!" Ravio said with a cry, completely ignoring Link's question. He sounded so lost that Link had no idea what to say in response to that. Was he supposed to apologise? Was he supposed to explain that they were in the middle of a war, not looking for 'little sages' as he called them?

But... they were looking for Zelda... Maybe she was in one of these so called dungeons that the others had mentioned... Maybe he should bring this up to Impa...

"If it helps, I always think of the battles as dungeons. Sometimes we need to find an item, like the time we were looking for a proper weapon for Lana, and sometimes we need to steal a key from a enemy commander to get into the bad guy's home base, which is a little bit like looking for a key in a temple." Mask mused, his hand brushing over his blue ocarina and his eyes losing focus as they thought deeply about a bad memory.

"That does not help in the slightest," Ravio huffed. "If there's no adventure then there's no reason for me to be renting my fares, which means no rupees!"

"The military does pay y'know?" Link sighed as he rubbed his eyes clear of any gunk left over him his sleep. He really needed to get back to doing his skin care routine as he felt the oil building up on his nose, but it was always hard to maintain a daily ritual when he was often rudely awakened by people setting off explosions when the sun was barely up.

"And so does renting items Mister Captain Hero Sir, and let me tell you, only one of those can guarantee that I am alive and well by the end of it." Ravio said with his arms crossed against his chest, but it was hard to take him seriously when he was wearing a hood with massive bunny ears on it.

"You're absolutely right Sir Purple Bunbun, being a merchant is a very dangerous job, after all, there's a lot of travelling involved to get from place to place and the roads are very dangerous, especially at night, let alone all of the dangerous adventures who would love to come along and murder you so that they can get a fancy stick that can make dirt go high for a couple of seconds." Ravio and Link stared at Mask for a second while they processed what he had just said.

"Sir Purple Bunbun?" Ravio asked.

"He's called me worse." Link muttered.

"But only I get to call you things!" Mask said, before pointing to Ravio. "He does not get to take the mick out of you and your position in the army just because he's so much of a coward that he's just gonna sit on the side-lines and sell us useless dancing sticks instead of actually helping us!"

"Wait, this is about 'Mister Captain Hero Sir'? Kid-"

"I'm not a kid!"

"I call Mister Captain Hero Sir that because my boyfriend is called Link, and I can't just call him Link because that would be confusing. And you're right, I am a bit of a coward, a huge one really, but Mr Hero did tell me before he left that I should work on that a bit more." Ravio said with a smile, which he probably intended to look sweet, but only achieved peak creepiness when the hood over his face. "He probably didn't mean it like this, but he can't complain if I actually bring him rent money, can he?"

"'Mr Hero'? You're going to give the Captain rent?" Mask asked, his anger clearly calmed for now. Link knew however, that that wouldn't stop Mask from pranking Sir Purple Bunbun later on. Link wondered if he should warn him or not.

"No, I'm talking about my boyfriend."

"So you've got two boyfriends?"

"Why would I have two boyfriends?"

"Because one of them is called Link and the other is called Mr Hero?" Ravio let out a laugh at the explanation, which again, was clearly not meant to send a shiver down Link's spine, but how else was he supposed to react to a guy wearing a bunny hood that never fell of his face throwing his head back and laughing to the heavens?

"...Sure." Ravio finally wheezed out, and only when Ravio had finally stopped laughing did Link let himself relax and smile at Mask's confusion. It had taken him forever for Link to teach him that, no, people calling him Mask was not them being mean to him, it was just that Young Link was a bit of a mouthful and slightly confusing on a battlefield. He had to then explain to him that when a friend of his calls him 'fairy boy', she wasn't trying to be mean to him, but rather try and be his friend by giving him a nickname.

Of course, it started a long list of nicknames that Mask had tried to give Link, but they were either actual insults or long or easily forgettable, leading to Link just reacting to whenever Mask talked and hoped it was him he wanted to talk to.

They walked as a group towards the tent that had been assigned as the kitchen, and when they spotted Impa, Ravio quickly ran off to ask if he could be put onto the payroll, because Link had pointed him to the wrong tent the night before apparently. That left Mask and Link to get their food and to sit down underneath a tree, hiding from the sun in the morning shadows.

Link could see some soldiers glaring at him for sitting in the shadows, probably terrified Shadow Link was going to come and kidnap him. Link ignored them and tried to eat in piece.

"Can I call you that?" Mask asked as he pushed his porridge around his bowl, not looking up from it.

"What? 'Mister Captain Hero Sir'?" Link asked after he swallowed his mouthful. Mask gave a small nod. "Yeah, sure, if you want."

"But don't you like the name Link?"

"Well, yeah, but that's still my name even if everyone across time and space called me 'Mister Captain Hero Sir', just like your name is still Link even though we call you Mask." Sometimes it was hard to be patient with Link, when he asked questions like this. The other soldiers certainly weren't, they would just laugh and walk off without explaining this, but Link has sat there during the long nights as Mask explained what his home used to be, a small village of immortal children with no worries in their life. Link wasn't sure where Mask lived now, but he doubted it was with an adult, let alone an adult that would sit down with him and explain the small things that Mask simply didn't experience due to his background.

"Okay then!" Mask said with a smile, before rushing to finish his breakfast and running off, probably to go and find out where Skull Kid had run off to. "Thanks Mister Captain Hero Sir!"

In all honesty, Link hated the name. It was long and held too much emphasis on who he was supposed to be rather than who he was, but he hated to make Mask sad more.

OMAKE:

It had been years since the Wars of Era had ended, and the night was peaceful. It had been years since Link, known to many as Mask, had seen another person with his name, and despite how much he missed his pseudo brother, he knew it was also a good thing.

The night was the same as any other, a small meal with his now wife Malon after a long day working on the ranch, and he made sure to hold her close to make sure he would remember where he was in the morning.

He was almost asleep when the thought struck him.

"Mr Hero and Link were the same person."

"Go to sleep Link"

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So, everything is now written, thanks to the huge lw yesterday, thanks everyone who supported me though writing this fic!


	3. Chapter 3

Midna pinched the bridge of her nose as she took a deep breath, slowly releasing it as she made sure to think over her words before she spoke them. She had come to learn that people in the light world were easily offended by the things she said, even though she was speaking the truth.

"You called this meeting, because 'Mister Captain Hero Sir' is sad?" She asked. Mask nodded. She looked at the rest of the group. Ravio was sat next to the new girl who had fallen out of a portal last week and talking quietly to her, and Fi was sat there with a straight back, taking this as seriously as any other war meeting. Agitha and Skull Kid were talking about bugs, which was clearly not the point of the meeting, but if Mask wasn't going to say anything then she wasn't.

"Yes, and being sad is really bad for the army's moral! Fi can tell you how bad it is even." Midna rolled her eyes and started to talk before Fi could start with her percentages.

"Who even is 'Mister Captain Hero Sir'?" Midna asked as she floated from her seat to sit on top of the table, crossing her arms.

"Oh. That's Link. Ravio gave him this awesome nickname and he said I can use it too, and it makes it easier for me to know what Link he's talking about." Right. Because Mask's name was actually Link as well, and the thought of her own Link floats up to the forefront of her mind before she pushed it away. No. She left. She can't be sad. She's the one who left him. 

"Okay. Link's sad. What's that got to do with me?" Midna asked.

"Well, when your friend is sad you're supposed to try and make him feel better," Skull Kid explained with a chirp, as if Link was upset that he had dropped his ice cream and not the fact that they were losing the war at the moment. "It's what Lin- Mask did to me when I was sad and running around and being mean to people, so maybe it will work for Link!"

"I'm getting the impression that the reason why you were sad is not the reason why Link is sad." The new girl, Marin, said.

"Well yeah, but we're not going to do what I did to make Skill Kid feel better, because it's obviously not going to work this time." Mask said, as if they knew exactly what he did to make Skull Kid feel better.

"It's not?" Skull Kid asked, two of the three fairies that hung around camp flying around his head.

"Honestly, even if it did, I wouldn't do it again. I really don't want to fight the moon. That was hard."

"So what are you going to do to make Link feel better? What's even making him sad in the first place?" Agitha asked.

So they were just going to move on from the moon comment without a question. Fine. Midna will interrogate him later about it. Back to the point of the meeting.

What was making Link sad?

The better question was to ask what wasn't making him sad. Midna didn't know how much the others could see it, but the weight of the war and other people's expectations were heavy weights to carry. She was familiar with the journey of Hylia's Chosen Hero, the way that they were ordered around to do the bidding of others in hopes to defeat a great evil, but this hero had more than that.

The fact of the matter was that, if this Link was anything like her Link had been, the Hero was not meant to be placed in a role of power like he had been. It's confides them, squeezes them, suffocates them. That was supposed to be the role of the Princess, but she seemed to be more interested in hiding away from her people and her problems than actually helping with the war. How selfish and irresponsible. 

So the Captain was stressed because he was expected to kill the biggest evil that the land had seen in centuries, expected to lead most of the army while the Princess was gallivanting and her bodyguard was chasing after her, expected to take the blame for any of his men's death, any betrayal that happened behind his back, any failure that might happen even if it was out of his hands.

Midna wondered how many generals were pushing their work onto Link's shoulders, how many were talking about taking the credit that he was due, how many were talking about stabbing him in the back so that they could get what they wanted out of the war.

Then Midna realised that she was the only one in this tent who even held a position of power within a military, being the Twilight Princess had it's perks and pitfalls after all, and realised how out of their depth these people around her would be if they tried to cheer Link up, since they had no idea what was actually going on behind the scenes. They may know war, and they may know what it's like to fight against terrible odds, but they had no idea what it was like to be in charge and responsible for it.

Well, Mask might know some of it, since he was a hero himself, but he was also twelve. He shouldn't be fighting in a war in the first place.

"Probably a lot of things are making him sad, but I'm placing most of the blame on Dink." Mask said with so much convention that Midna had to blink and realise that she had no idea who this Dink was.

Clearly, the rest of the group did not know who this Dink was, because Ravio coughed slightly before asking his question. "Who's Dink? Is he one of the soldiers, because I do have this item that I've wanted to try out-" Marin slapped his arm while Mask rolled his eyes.

"No! Dink! As in Dark Link!" Mask yelled, as if they were supposed to know that right off the bat.

"Young Master, I don't think that's the only reason why he's been felling low," Fi said.

"Yeah I know-"

"I thought the other soldiers were helping him with it? By lighting up the dark corners and threatening strangers?" Ravio asked, much to Mask's frustration.

"They're annoying him, not helping. He's not scared of the dark," Mask explained. "I don't think he's scared of Dink, but he is making him sad.

"Well, I'm not sure how we're supposed to help Mister Captain Hero Sir if the problem is with the war and the bad people, because we're already helping with the war." Skull Kid muttered with his arms crossed before giving a smile, or as much as he could give with a beak. "I know! I'll hit Dink extra hard when I next see him! Problem solved." Skull Kid said with a smile before jumping off his seat and running off.

"But Mister Captain Hero Sir's still gonna be sad in the meantime Skull Kid!" Mask said as he gave chase. Agitha rolled her eyes before jumping from her own seat and leaving, while Fi frowned before disappearing from the air.

"Well, this has been fun, but we've got to be going. See you later Midna!" Ravio said with a smile, dragging Marin along with him, their hands tightly clasped together while his other hand held a strange looking mirror.

Leaving her in the room by herself.

She couldn't help but be glad that they had left her out of whatever they were all up to, as while she was sure it was all very important, the longer she spent in the light world the more tired she got, and she had been in the light world for a long time at this point.

It was almost enough for her to ask for a battle within the twilight realm, if only so she could recharge a bit.

She slowly left the tent and tried to make her own way back to her own one, so that she could just lay in the dark and remember what it was like to be back at home, sticking to the shadows so that none of the other soldiers could spot her and ask her how shadow magic worked. They were all too dumb to know even the basics of it.

Of course, since she was too busy trying to make sure that none of the regular soldiers spotted her, she had to bump into the guy who Mask decided to have a meeting about.

"Ugh! Watch where you're going!" Midna yelled at Link as she went flying back into a tent while he stood in place, though he did look surprise to see her there.

"Minnie? Sorry I didn't see you there." Link yawned, and Midna could see what Mask was trying to tell the others. He looked exhaused, though he did try his best not to show it. His face looked a bit paler than normal, his hair less organised than he normally allowed it to get. His scarf was just thrown over his neck rather than painstakingly organised so that it would fall in a particular way like he normally did.

However, she had bigger issues to deal with at the moment, which was whatever he had decided to call her.

"Did you just call me Minnie?" Midna snarled, which seemed to snap Link out of his dazed look and truly at her, and she allowed herself to feel the slight satisfaction at the fear that grew within them.

Oh, wait until the day that she could go into her true form. They'll see who was 'Minnie' then.

"Oh, I'm sorry Midna." Link let out a very awkward laugh. "I haven't been sleeping much, and it kinda slipped out."

"Clearly. And it's clearly getting to the point that Mask wants to go to extra lengths so that you're happy." Midna said with her arms crossed. "Not sleeping is a sign of being sad apparently. I always thought it was when you slept for too long that you were sad, but Mask is an expert when it comes to these things."

"It's to do with the kid's past," Link muttered, and what was it with everyone being vague today!? It was getting on her nerves.

Then she thought about it some more. Did she really want to know more about Mask's past? That seemed risky. If she wasn't careful, she was going to start pitying him and that wouldn't be good.

"Right..." Midna muttered before letting out a sigh. "Well he also thinks that it's Dink that's making you sad."

"Dink?" Link asked.

"Mask's name for Dark Link. I've grown suddenly attached to the name for some reason." Midna said as Link started laugh, and Midna looked at the boy and she couldn't help but see her own Link within him. They were about the same height and build. They both stood up straight and held their sword with their left hand, a rare trait she's been told. The back of their hands were covered in the triangles that everyone in the light world was obsessed with.

So many differences come to mind, however. The shade of their hair, the way that they stared into the shadows with different looks in their eyes. Her Link's teeth were sharper, and his words more cutting, whereas this Link was softer and held kinder words to show that he was approachable. Her Link was normally lonely and craved other Hylians, but this Link couldn’t wait to get away from them.

Unless it was Mask, of course.

"I'll go ask him about that then," Link said with a soft smile.

"You go do that." Midna muttered before closing her eyes and saying something to Link that she never expected to come out of her mouth. "But remember, that we're here to help you with this war, and that extends past the battlefield. You've got worries about something? Then just talk to us about it. We've all helped a hero in the past, helping you isn't gonna be that much harder."

"Thanks Midna."

"Hmm. Also. Word of warning, Mister Captain Hero Sir," Midna sung the name that Ravio and Mask both call this Link, and she smirked at the way that he screwed his face up at the name. "Call me Minnie and it's not going to be the war that you're worried about. You get me?"

Link nodded and quickly disappeared, looking for Mask probably.

Good riddance.


	4. Chapter 4

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> 'how many issues has wars seen and dealt with and decided that it wasn't his responsibility anymore?' or 'the war took so many fucks that wars now has none to give'

Link had thought that, with the war over, Princess Zelda save and sound in her castle with her bodyguard, and Ganondorf properly sealed away, that this all could be over. that everyone would go back to their times and there would be no more world hopping, no more battling, no more interactions with Cia.

But then Lana said that she can't send everyone back to their own times without Cia (something to do with the fact that she was only half a person but that was an issue that Link had decided from the get go was not his to be dealing with), and she also said that they can't stay in this time period because the timeline was unstable as it was so they need to stabilise it, whatever that meant.

(Mask had said that he could explain it all to him, because he apparently knew what happened to the timelines, but again, that just wasn't Link's issue to deal with either.)

So, that gave them the task of looking for Cia, which unfortunately had become Link's problem, since Zelda needed to learn that she can't just go running around the kingdom doing things when it needed someone to lead it, and Impa had to stay to 'protect' her ("Fancy way of babysitting." Mask had said at the time. Link told him never to say that to the Princess's face unless he didn't want to live to see the day that he turned sixteen.), leaving Link the most experienced person in the army to look for Cia.

He's not sure if it was better or worse that some of the others decided to tag along.

"C'mon Mister Captain Hero Sir! You love us, and you're gonna miss us when we're gone, so we better make the most of our time together while we still can, and nothing screams spending time together more than a road trip!" Ravio gushed, waving his hands in the air with excitement while Marin giggled and Midna rolled her eyes.

"I've never been on a road trip before," Marin said with a smile. "What are they like?"

"They're like the adventures that Mr Hero talks about, but way more fun, with more people, and no murdering of course."

"Of course." Midna repeated underneath her breath.

"Then you've never been on a proper road trip. Everyone knows that a proper road trip ends in a murder." Mask said with a smirk as he threw a look at Ravio and Marin, who both gulped in fear of his words. Not that Link blamed them of course. He didn't know what the pair had done, but they had done something to catch Mask's attention, and the only way that Mask seemed to know how to consistently show affection was to threaten them with bodily harm.

Link had no idea how this translated from 'I grew up with immortal children', but again, that wasn't his issue to deal with.

"And it's going to be yours in a minute if you don't stop scaring them." Link shot back to him, but he couldn't help the smile that crawled onto his face when Mask beamed at him.

And to think that this kid was sometimes the scariest thing on the battlefield.

"Must we talk of murder so soon after the war?" Marin asked quietly, and Link threw a look at her, frowning and he saw Ravio comfort her awkwardly, and sighing when Midna and Mask looked away from the couple with a guilty look in their eyes.

The war was over.

That's what Impa had said to everyone, when they placed the Master Sword back into its pedestal and watched as Ganondorf was sealed away. That's what Zelda had said, on the most stable balcony of the castle as she looked down at her kingdom and her army, while Link stood of to the side in the shadows, because he wasn't a part of the army, not really. It was what was screamed from rooftops and chanted in public houses and whispered in stables as the news spread.

The war was over.

Then began talks of sending people home, of how they're gonna do it and what they're going to do now that this section of history had played out. They were talking about writing everything down and wondering what parts to hide and what parts to boast. There was talks of mourning and rebuilding and moving on, but Link was stuck, his feet deep in mud, because he was still thinking about the final battle with Ganon, he could remember what it was like to hold the Master Sword in his hand even though the only thing he wanted to do was drop it and run.

The war was over.

Was it?

"Is that another portal?" They group turned to see where Midna was pointing, and Link's jaw almost dropped when he saw that, yes, there was a portal in the middle of the valley.

Almost, being the key word here, because it must be kept in the back of their minds that it was Cia that they were looking for. Cia, who was also known for creating dark portals and travelling through them to find allies and to create distractions.

Cia was the person who started the war. She was the only thing unaccounted for. So why did people thing that the war had ended?

"Do... Do we go through?" Mask asked, and Link wondered if Mask thought the same way as him. They were both heroes after all, though Mask's actual age was always up for debate, a popular bet between the soldiers. Had Mask also realised that Cia being missing meant that the story had not finished?

It was always hard to tell what he was thinking.

"Well duh. We're looking for Cia. Cia is the only person who makes dark portals like that. Thus, Cia is on the other side of the portal. Therefore, we go through the portal."

"But we don't know what's on the other side of the portal? Who knows what we're gonna walk into?" Marin asked as they all started into the swirling void, mesmerised with how the purple mixed in with the dark red and how, even though they all called them dark portals, there was no black involved at all.

"Mostly an ocean if I'm gonna be honest."

In a matter of seconds the group had turned around, armed and ready to take down the owner of the voice. Yet, as Link pointed his sword at the small girl (he had learned his lessons with Mask to never underestimate anyone who looked twelve), he couldn't help but notice the slightly off-centred weight of the sword, the way that the tip felt heavier than the Master Sword, the way that it was ever so slightly thinner than the Master Sword, the way that it was ever so slightly duller than the Master Sword.

But the war was over, wasn’t it?

"I mean, there's obviously a few islands, but there's only like, three that I would recommend. Link told me what was on the others and quite honestly creepy dungeons are not my sort of thing." The girl continued as if she was not behind held at sword point by at least two people, which only made her all the more terrifying.

"And who are you?" Midna asked, the shadows around her flickering to take the form of a feral beast, though the details of the shadow were too hard for Link to make out.

"I could ask you the same." The girl responded, moving only to raise an eyebrow at Midna, and it caused Link to pause for a second.

He had seen that face before.

The 'what makes you think for even a second that you're in charge of the situation here' face. The face that always told him to take a step back and shut up, or to take a step back and let the person handle the situation. It was a face of authority, a strange face to see on a twelve year old, but nevertheless, it was an effective one. Sure, he had seen it on some of the higher ups before, but it was the way that her eyelids drooped somewhat to show her disinterest in the situation, the way that her ears twitched to show her anxieties, the way that the corners of her mouth moved to show her inexperience.

But where had he seen this before?

"Well, I believe that I asked first." Midna spoke as if she was ten foot tall instead of two, that her political powers were widespread across the land when she wasn't even from this timeline. Her beast began to walk around her as she hovered higher and closer to the little girl, but the others seemed to have lost interest in threatening her, either because they didn't like threatening children (Marin, a risky stance to have but he didn't blame her), not being paid to (Ravio, or at least, Link assumed that would be his reasoning later on), being bored of the situation (Mask, no reasoning required) or because the girl pulled a face so alike to someone else that it caused them to be so lost in thought that he missed have of the verbal spitting between Midna and said girl (Link, of course).

"Okay, both of you are pretty, can we just move on to the problem we have at the moment, which is the large dark portal that, may I kindly remind you guys, should not be here?" Mask's voice was enough to break the women up from their power play and to distract Link from his quest down memory lane to figure out when exactly he had seen that facial expression before.

"Don't look at me like I know anything! I was just minding my own business when it appeared out of nowhere, causing an flood of monsters to start attacking innocent villagers. I was wondering where it was going and I was not going to get Link involved in another quest when he's barely functioning since the last one!" Link let the words wash over him (little did he know that in a few years time that it would come back to haunt him) as he concentrated more on the way that the girl acted, and was starkly reminded of when Sheik was trying to explain something to the group by waving his arms around and huffing when no one got what he was trying to say.

Sheik, who was also Princess Zelda.

And that was enough of a connection to remember what the throne room of the castle, before the siege and before the war, when the image of a young girl watched over the court. The two looked slightly different, wearing different clothing and the one of him was actually alive rather than being a stained glass portrait, but it was enough of a resemblance for Link to finally place why he recognised her.

"You're the late Queen Tetra, aren't you?" Link asked.

"Well, I'm not dead, and I ain't a queen yet, but yes, I'm Tetra. Who are you?" She demanded, deciding now was the right time to pull out a gun- _whogavethetwelveyearoldagun???_

"I'm Li-"

"Why this is the famous Mister Captain Hero Sir, well known for his amazing skills as a hero and his role as a captain for the Hylian Army, the best one we've got in fact!" Ravio said loudly, as if he was trying to sell the concept of Link to Tetra, deciding that he was even going to throw his arm around Link's shoulders, as if Link liked the nickname enough for Ravio to get away with it.

"The only one as well." Mask muttered underneath his breath as Link pushed Ravio off off his shoulder and onto the ground.

What he hadn't taken into account was the fact that Ravio might reach for his scarf to steady himself, which gave Link two options. Either die a tragic death of his own causing, or fall on top of Ravio and embarrass himself in front of the founder of New Hyrule.

Link wished he was given a choice. He would have gone for the first option.

Instead he closed his eyes as the group started to laugh, from the muffled giggles from Marin to the snorting laughter from Midna to the hysterical that Mask had found himself in, and when Link looked over to check on him, he let out a small sigh as he watched Mask roll around in the dust and sand.

It hadn't been that funny.

"How many times am I going to tell you that I have a boyfriend, Mister Captain Hero Sir?" Ravio asked from underneath Link.

"And how many times am I going to tell you that it doesn't count as a relationship if your so called 'Mr Hero' doesn't even realise he's in a relationship, Sir Purple Bunbun?" Link asked, taking pleasure in the way that Ravio's eye twitched at the reality of his relationship, admitted one drunken night, and again at the nickname that Mask had dubbed him with.

"Cute. What about the portal?" Tetra asked as she looked down at them, doing the raised eyebrow thingy as she watched them scrambled to get away from each other and up from the ground, both brushing off as much dust and sand from their respective scarfs as quickly as possible.

Who even wears a scarf to the desert?

"Yes the portal. We believe the creator of the portals is on the other side. Do you mind giving us a hand to find her?" Link asked politely, going as far as to give the small girl a bow of respect. The girl smiled at him, though it was not a good smile. It was a smile that brought him fear.

"Of course not. Lead the way," Tetra said, pointing in the direction of the portal with the hand that held her gun, before giving everyone a wicked smirk, "Mister Captain Hero Sir."

The nickname was met with a cry of laughter when everyone saw Link's face screw up in distaste at the name.

"I hate all of you." Link muttered as he walked towards the portal.

"Even me Mister Captain Hero Sir?"

"Especially you Mask."

And with that, Mister Captain Hero Sir took a step into the swirling colours and prepared himself to look upon the Great Sea.


	5. Chapter 5

It took them a week to find Cia, on a deserted island, moaning about how someone called 'Phantom Ganon' had stolen the Triforce of Power from her and thus was causing her to slowly fade away because she no longer had any power of her own.

If it had been any other situation, and Link had bumped into Cia fading away into nothingness because of her own mistakes, Link knew that he would have just waved and let her do so. After all, it was her fault for becoming too reliant on the Triforce of Power.

But no, Lana needed Cia's help to send the others back to their own time, and the others needed to go back to their own time because it was 'important for the integrity of the timeline' or whatever Lana said. Link didn't really know, timelines were not his forte, he just ran around a battlefield stabbing things that were definitely not on their side.

So Cia told them where they can find Phantom Ganon, and they go chasing after him, or as much chasing as they can do when they're on a boat. They were lucky that Tetra was happy to let the rest of the group travel on her boat, because for some reason Link didn't think to bring a boat with him to the Valley of Seers. A rather large oversight if he said so himself.

It's another week of painful sailing (as sailing with Cia on the ship does wonders for one's mental health) before they arrive at one of the temples that Tetra had told them about during her stories of her hero. They do some running around, kill some baddies, take down Phantom Ganon and take back the Triforce of Power.

And then it was time to leave.

Despite not knowing Tetra that long, it was still painful to say goodbye to her. He hadn't gotten to know her too well, it had only been two weeks after all, but it had been long enough that he wished he could have spent more time learning about her and her journey to find New Hyrule. Link was never that much of a history buff, but to go back to a time so important in their history had been eye opening.

They walked through the portal again, ending up in the Valley of Seers. the journey from here back to the castle was spent in a sea of whispers.

Link wasn't sure why, but he couldn't help but feel left out somewhat, when he looked back to see Marin, Ravio and Midna muttering to each other before going quiet when they spotted his staring. There was always a flash of something reflective when he turned his head to look at them, always a shushing noise when he walked on over to them.

"What are they planning?" Link asked Mask one night, when the stars were high in the sky and watched over them with judgement. They were almost back at the castle, but Link was tempted to find a route that would draw out the journey.

"I've got no idea what you're talking about Mister Captain Hero Sir." Link gritted his teeth at the nickname. He did like Mask. He didn't want to hit Mask because of a very annoying nickname.

"Don't give me that crap Mask, you know pretty much everything that's going on, I've seen you write in that notebook y'know?" Link said with his arms crossed.

"Okay, fine, I do know what they're up to, but I'm not getting more involved than I've already done and neither should you." Mask said as he looked up at Link, finally taking his eyes off the mask, the one that had white eyes and white hair and would bring Link nightmares for months to come, no matter how much Mask convinced him that the mask was a force of good.

There was a reason why Lana had marked Mask with dark magic after all.

"You're already involved?" Link asked, grimacing when he realised that he said that louder than he had planned to. Mask only rolled his eyes at him.

"I only pointed them in the right direction, so if they mess up and get themselves killed from here on out it's not my fault." Mask said with a roll of his eyes, as if the impending deaths of his friends was not something to be worried about.

"What are they going to do?"

"If I tell you, will you do everything in your power to stop them?" Mask asked, his voice deadly calm, and it was enough to cut through the building panic.

"...It depends." Link finally answered, because it did. If they were doing something that would end up with his friends being hurt or worse, he would do anything in his power to stop that from happening. But, depending on why they were doing whatever they felt like they needed to do, then he would perhaps help them, if only so he could control the damage that they would cause onto themselves and others around them.

"Then you're gonna have to understand that I can't tell you anything. They're gonna be fine if they do it right, anyways," Mask said as he finally put away the creepy mask and looking at Link with the smile that screamed trouble. "Snitches get stitches."

"What?" Link asked, his mind completely blank as he tried to comprehend what Mask had just said. Snitches get stitches? He had never heard of something like that in his life.

"Snitches get stitches? It's basically what happens when someone grasses someone else up, they get stitches because the other person gets to beat them up. Malon says that it's only a saying back home but with the Kokiri, we used to take that phrase very seriously. I don't want to find out if Midna is the same." There was a lot to unpack in that, so Link decided the best idea was to just pretend that he had never heard it at all and go to bed.

He got the feeling that, whatever Midna, Marin and Ravio were doing, he was going to find out soon anyways.

=-x-=

When they got back the castle, kindly greeted by Zelda and Impa, Lana and Cia drop the bomb that they can start sending people back home straight away.

Zelda tried to convince them otherwise, tried to say that they could have a goodbye party to celebrate winning the war, but the Guardians of Time disagreed, saying that the sooner they do it the quicker the quicker that things go back to normal and the less likely something bad happens to the timelines.

It's almost been a year of jumping around time and space, but goddess forbid that they have another couple of hours at least to say their goodbyes.

So Zelda sent everyone away to pack and ordered everyone to meet in the throne room in an hour, and she smiled sadly when those in the wrong time period sprinted out of the room towards where their belongings were kept, while the rest of them made their way towards the throne room.

Except Mask of course.

"Are you not going to pack, Mask?" Zelda asked with a frown.

"I'm already packed. Just in case, y'know?" Mask asked with a cheeky smile while Zelda shook her head, because she had never packed for herself one in her life, how in Hylia's name was she supposed to know what it was like to always be packed?

The throne room was still the mess that Link had seen two weeks ago, except maybe less rubble around and the stacks upon stacks of bricks and stones suggested that there were plans of fixing the place soon. The only thing left undamaged was the mural of Tetra, who looked down on them kindly, an odd expression to suddenly see from the girl after getting to know where somewhat.

The hour slowly dragged by with small talk and appearances of others stranded in the wrong time. Agitha looked as emotionless as ever while Darunia and Ruto were talking of the things that they would tell everyone when they got back, and Link did not miss the sly glances that the friends and Mask shot at each other.

All three had insisted that Mask was not from their timeline, and yet they knew each other.

Mask always knew how to confuse everyone around him.

But no matter how slowly the hour dragged, it came to the time that Zelda told everyone to meet up by, and there was no sign of Marin, Ravio and Midna.

"Maybe they got lost?" Link suggested, but the reason sounded weak to his own ears, so he wasn't surprised when no one took it seriously.

"Maybe they got attacked by bugs and are drowning in them?" Agitha said. Again, the suggestion was not taken seriously.

"I'm sure that they're on their way. They all know how serious this is." Zelda said with a diplomatic smile.

"Or maybe they decided that they were going to find their own way back to their timelines without the use of Cia's and Lana's portals so that they can go exactly where they wanted?" Mask said as he inspected his nails, his voice sounding bored but there was a twinkle in his eye.

Link just hated the fact that Mask's reasoning sounded more plausible than his own.

"Do they know how dangerous that is?" Lana yelled, and started pacing and explaining to those who were listening exactly why it was dangerous.

"Why would they do that anyways?" Zelda asked.

"A couple of reasons. Marin doesn't want to return to her own world and Minnie wants the ability to travel from her world to Agitha's Hyrule." Mask put up a finger per person, before frowning when he got to the third. "Not sure what Sir Purple Bunbun gets out of it though. They're not paying him that's for sure."

"I can't believe that Midna lets you call her Minnie." Link grumbled, but it was overtaken by Lana's yelling.

"You knew that this would happen? Out of anyone in this room, I would have thought that you would have been the last person to suggest time travelling without the right equipment." Mask smiled brightly at her.

"I would say that they had the right equipment alright. The Ocarina of Time and a connection to the sacred realm, that's enough to safely time travel without having to have a connection to the Triforce of Power." Link began rubbing his temples. Even with Ravio not being in the same time period as him, he was still causing headaches.

"Look, does it matter how and why they've done it, if it's already done? Can we just focus what's at hand here?" Lana and Cia looked at each other before huffing and nodding and began chanting to open up the first lot of portals, to send Agitha home.

"That's what you didn't want to tell me?" Link asked Mask, who only shrugged.

"I didn't want you to stop them. They deserve to be happy and find their way back to their hero." There was clearly something there that Mask wasn't talking about, especially if the three fairies dancing around his blonde hair had anything to say about it. "You're not mad, are you Mister Captain Hero Sir?" The question got Link at a loss. Why would he be mad? But he didn't ask the question to Mask, because at the end of the day it didn't really matter as to why Mask thought he would be mad, because he just wasn't.

"No. I just wish I was able to give them a proper goodbye is all."

"Whenever there is a meeting, a parting is sure to follow. However, that parting needs not last forever. Whether a parting be forever or merely for a short time, that's up to you." Link let out a wet laugh as he messed with Masks hair, who tried his hardest to push Link off.

"When did you get so wise?"

"I've always been this wise thank you," Mask said playfully, before his face and tears gathered up in his eyes. "I'm gonna miss you."

"Gonna miss you too Link." Link replied as he reached forward and gave him a tight hug.

"C'mon Link it's time to go!" Skull Kid's yell echoed around the throne room, but it was enough to pull Link and Mask apart.

"Okay, see you later Mister Captain Hero Sir!" Mask waved as he followed Skull Kid through the portal, and then he was gone.

Despite how optimistic Mask had sounded, Link doubted he would be able to see the kid again. He hated how much that seemed to hurt him.

"'Mister Captain Hero Sir'?" Impa asked, and it was only then that Link realised, that during this entire war, that Impa and Zelda had not heard him be called the awful nickname that Ravio had come up with.

"I don't want to talk about it."

=-x-=

That should have been that.

But two years after the war, now formally called the War of Eras, Lana and Cia report finding dark portals that were not of their own creation. Zelda sent Link to investigate.

Link had not been ready to see what was on the other side.


	6. Chapter 6

Link thought that the War of Eras was confusing with the whole time-traveling element that Cia had chucked into the mix. Meeting people who had fallen into the portals had been fun, but it started to get very repetitive after the third era they appeared in, and Link had found himself getting bored of answering the same questions over and over again. 

This, however, took it to a whole other level.

Because before, he was the only hero around, if Link didn't count Mask of course, though he had become close to those who had chosen to help fight Cia, who all happened to have helped their era's hero in their own ways.

But, now, he was one of nine heroes.

~~He couldn't help but notice that Mask wasn't there.~~

"What the actual fuck is going on?" The kid with the lobster tunic said, and Link found himself agreeing with him as he looked between each of the men. The man with the missing eye was... familiar, and the guy with the pick streak of hair had a face that he was certain he had seen before, but he just couldn't place where it had been.

"I had a dream the night before, from the Goddess Hylia," the buy with the white cape said, and Link wasn't sure if he should roll his eyes at it or not. His views of the Goddess were conflicted. After all, she had done everything in her power to keep Hyrule safe, by letting him wielding the Master Sword and allowing Zelda to access the sacred power so that they could defeat evil.

But she had also chosen Mask as a hero, and forced him on three adventures. He had been a child when he met Link, younger when he started out. He couldn't stand by someone who used a child in their wars.

"There is an evil rising from the shadow, and it is infecting Hyrule across space and time, and she decided that the best way to effectively eradicate the evil was to gather heroes across the timelines to defeat it."

"Timelines? As in, multiple timelines?" The boy with the multicoloured tunic asked.

"Ugh don't remind me! It's was such a pain!" Link moaned as he placed his fingers to his temple and started rubbing. Not again, he couldn't do this again. He's had two of the most stress free years of his life, but now that was over because the Goddess decided that he was going to back to travelling again.

"Yeah, that would be my fault." The man with the scar across his eye said, because of course, the reasons for the splitting timeline was caused by a guy with weird tattoos and a missing eyes.

"You caused the timeline split?" Link asked.

"If it makes you feel better, the timeline eventually gets put back together!" The scarred man in blue said with a smile, but then a frown crept up on his face. "Though I can't quite remember how exactly that happened."

"Why are you guys talking about timelines when the guy just said that that evil was raising!" The boy with the freckles and dirty brown hair said, his voice raising up an octave.

"Who said that I wanted to go around slaying evil again?" The man with the pink streak of hair asked as he crossed his arms.

"Then why did you go through the portal, they're clearly not made with good intentions?" The man with the cape asked.

"Well... I'm looking for someone." The man snapped back, before deciding to sit own on the floor and look away from the man with the cape.

"Wait, I'm not the only one?" Said the boy with the multicoloured tunic, and Link looked curiously at the man with the fur pelt when he looked away from the group, his face blushing.

"Clearly not." The man with the scarred eye, and Link looked away from him when he looked over at him curiosity.

Had they met? Link was sure that he would have remembered if he had met someone before with a missing eye.

"I mean, it sounds like you guys had good intentions before you stepped through." Said the scarred man in blue. "I was just bored and wondered what would happened if I did it."

"You went through the portal... on a whim?" Asked the man with the cape hesitantly. The scarred man smiled brightly.

"Yeah! I have to say, that this is probably the better outcome of some of my impulsive decision making."

"Well, now you guys make me sound boring when I have to say that Zelda told me to go and investigate what was going on." Link muttered.

"None of you care about the rising evil, do you?" The caped man said with a sigh as he too sat down on the ground, and quickly the others joined him, leaving them sat in a circle like they were going to do some sort of drinking game that always ended with Link telling more than he should have.

"Hey! We do care!" said the boy that Link presumed to be the youngest, if only by the way that his voice still sounded squeaky. "But we can't go around killing evil if we don't get to know each other first, or else how are we supposed to work as a team?"

"You are making a lot of presumptions kid," The pink haired man said, rolling his eyes when the kid shouted back at him.

"Don't call me kid!"

"Well, what else is he supposed to call you kid? Link? That's all of our names, and it simply just wont work. What if you're trying to gain someone's attention and you have to spend five minutes trying to explain which Link you're trying to talk to? Trust me, it gets annoying pretty fast." Link said, remembering the times when Mask didn't go by the nickname Mask, and thus they both would respond whenever the name 'Link' was called.

It had been very inconvenient.

"How did you know that all of our names were Link?" The man with the brown hair cocked his head in curiosity. Link rolled his eyes.

"I studied a lot of history while in the castle. It's one of the traits of holding the Hero's Spirit." Not strictly true but he wasn't about to tell them about his past experiences with these sorts of portals, or at least, not right away. He didn't want to give off a bad first impression after all.

"Right." Said the man with the pink streak in his hair. "And how are we supposed to go about coming up with a nickname?"

"Well, surely we all have a hero title. Why don't we just use that?" Link suggested, because that had been how they kept track of what era they had been in, so it could be used for the heroes themselves, right?

"So my name is Hyrule, because I'm the Hero of Hyrule?" The newly dubbed Hyrule said with slight hesitation.

"Yep. that means that I'm Wind!" the now Wind said with excitement evident in his voice. Slowly, they had gone around the group and said their hero title, pausing slightly when it came to Wild and Sky, and Link had to make sure not to snort when Four and Legend said theirs, because what sort of names were they?

The it was his turn.

He had only heard someone call him by his hero title a couple of times, the most evident was when Cia cornered him in the Temple of Souls and she had whispered the title over and over again.

Hero of Warriors. It hadn't made too much sense at the time, but now he was able to look back at his 'adventure' (because can he really call the war an adventure?), it made a lot of sense.

"Warriors? Are you sure you don't want to go by 'Mister Captain Hero Sir'?"

Warriors' eye twitched.

Two years.

It had been two years since he had last heard that name be uttered aloud, but as every day passed, he couldn't help but be forever grateful for that fact.

Two years.

Two calm peaceful years that he spent reminiscing about the past battles and wondering what would have happened if he had managed to convince Lana to let Mask stay in their Hyrule.

Clearly, it was for the better. Warriors would have killed him if he was like this as an adult.

"You. Little. Shit." Warriors clenched his jaw and tried to take a deep breath in, hold it for a couple of seconds, before slowly releasing it, before doing it again.

He tried to ignore Mask's laughter, much deeper than he remembered as he instead focused on trying to keep his temper in and stopping him from ending the man's life.

He liked Mask. He adopted Mask. He can't kill Mask just because he called him a name.

But it had been a great two years without hearing that name, and he really came along and ruined it.

"Mister Captain Hero Sir?" Legend asked with a strange look on his face.

"Oh Tetra told me about you! Is it true that the first thing you did when you came to our world was nearly down the Great Sea?" Wind asked. Warriors let out a large groan at the reminder, and Mask started laughing all over again.

"Oh, they were some good times."

"So what, we calling you Mask or not?" Warriors snapped back, trying to keep his temper in check, though it was clearly not working.

"I have outgrown those things." Mask said. He still had the same lying tell however, his eye looking towards the left somewhat and he minutely bit his lips. It was much better controlled than when he was a kid, but it was still there.

"Bet you have a couple in your bag anyways." Warriors laughed when Mask rolled his eyes and pouted, looking exactly like the kid that Warriors fought alongside, except twenty years older.

"And so what if I do? I'm not going to be called Mask, my hero title is Hero of Time, so you can call me Time." The silence that the group falls into at the reveal of Time's name was long and awkward, and not at all comfortable for Warriors to sit in. Time was the most famous hero across time, that had been something that he had learned during the war, so to see the others fall silent in either deep thought (Legend, Hyrule, Twilight, Wind) or confusion (Wild, Four, Sky) annoyed him.

How dare they judge him on what they think they know about him?

"So... How did you get the nickname 'Mister Captain Hero Sir'?" Twilight asked, allowing for all of them to pretend that Time being the Hero of Time was not a big deal.

"So this motherfucker called Ravio appeared one day during a battle-"

"Ravio?" Legend muttered.

"Yeah, Ravio, keep up. So he appeared during a battle, and he decided that he didn't like the name 'Link' since it was the name of his almost boyf-"

"*Do you know where he is?*" Legend rushed out.

"What?" Warriors asked, losing his train of thought before he thought a little more, before the light bulb lit up in his mind. "Wait a second, _you're Mr Hero_?!"

"Yeah, I'm Mr Hero. Do you know where Ravio is?"

"He's missing? I haven't seen him since the end of the war." Warriors shot a dirty look at Time, who refused to look at him, finding the trees surrounding them more interesting.

"Does any of this matter? We have been sent here on a mission by the goddess, we don't have the time for this-"

"Sky's right. It's late, we should be getting some sleep, today has been tiring and we're clearly got a long journey on our hands." Four said loudly.

"That's not what I meant."

"Good idea Four!" Twilight said with a smile, and they all started unpacking their sleeping packs, and Warriors made sure that at least three people from the group were between him and Legend. Wild had volunteered himself for the first shift of the night watch, with Twilight and Hyrule taking second and third shifts respectfully.

"You said that they'll get back safely." Warriors said quietly as he stared at the stars above him.

"They probably have, time's just something very hard to control." Time said, not that it made Warriors any more confident in Ravio, Marin and Midna's attempt to travel across time and space.

"I've missed you kid."

"I've missed you too big bro."


	7. Chapter 7

Despite the fact that Warriors and Time seemed to be the only people in the group who actually knew each other before the group were forced on another journey, Warriors isn't surprised when Time grows close with Twilight and they start sharing those secret glances with each other that scream 'I know something you don't'. It was expected, of course, because while it had been two years for Warriors and he had barely went a day without wondering about what had happened to the kid who pissed him off on a daily basis, it had been closer to twenty for Time, and he can't expect him to have stayed the same the whole time.

It does hurt sometimes, when he wakes up in the middle of the night without the weight on him, only to turn around and see him being hugged by another member of the group in their sleep.

Nevertheless, the others in the group were interesting, so say the least.

Sky had somewhat calmed down after their initial meeting. He lives to serve the Goddess, who was also his Zelda, who he was also dating. But despite that, he was fiercely protective, and he had never seen the Master Sword glow in the same way that it did when Sky held her hilt. It may have been forged for those with the Hero's Spirit, but it was clear that Sky was her true master.

Four and Wind were the smallest of the group, and therefore the ones that caused the most fear in Warriors. Fear that they would get hurt badly in a battle, even though Four was almost an adult (just a very small one) and Wind had been on his own journeys to prove himself worthy of the title hero. There was also the fear that they would hurt him very badly if he was to ever say something offensive to them. He blamed baby Time, Tetra and Midna for that fear.

And talking about Midna, Twilight was everything she described him as and more, uptight, weary of anything he didn't know and a control freak when it came to someone he cared for getting hurt and there way nothing he could do to help them. However, she never mentioned how good of a tracker he was and she never talked about the brute strength that he packed. It had been terrifying to watch him pick up a boulder without any magical assistance, making it seem like it was nothing.

His Ma had been right. There was something to fear about the boys who lived out in the country.

But Twilight's tracking skills had been a godsend when it came to looking for Wild and Hyrule when they decided to wonder off. They were great at finding good caves to sleep the night in, but their people's skills left a lot to be improved on, along with the fact that they were clearly out of touched with the idea of working on a quest with any sort of helping hand.

Then there was Legend.

Now, there was nothing wrong with Legend, per say. He fought well and had lots of experience, though he refused to enclose where he had gained it all. He call talk all day but reveal nothing about himself. He had an item for a problem, and if he didn't then he knew where to find one. He was jumpy around authority and stayed clear of those in knight uniforms. His nose twitched with the breeze and his ears picked up at the sound of the grass moving, and it had been annoying Warriors, because it reminded him of the way that Ravio used to act during the war, and there had been no one else who managed to play with his nerves like the strings of a guitar like Ravio had.

If he started giving everyone painfully bad nicknames, well, he hoped that the Goddess would do him a favour and look away while he committed the sin of murdering thy brother.

Nevertheless, the time that they spend on the journey had drawn the group close. Close enough for Warriors to mention some things about the war, close enough for Wild to explain that his scars came from something called Guardians that killed him, close enough to finally work together to kill that one moblin in the woods who had a weird black blood.

Warriors had seen the same thing with the moblin before, but where...

"Let's go on a detour." Warriors frowned at Time's words, while the others happily went along with it, because after all, it was Time's world, and surely everything would be fine if they were just to follow him.

That's what they thought. They were wrong. Something bad was going to happen if they followed Time. Warriors had followed Time one time and one time only, because that single time had caused them to run around the water temple like headless cuccos because the kid decided he was going to mess with the water levels.

But Warriors didn't say anything. They had to learn somehow that just because Time was the eldest of the group didn't mean he was the most mature. Sure, he had matured a lot since he was a kid, but he was acting cheerful, enough for Twilight to notice something was up, and that never meant anything good for Warriors.

So when ten minutes later Time turned around and showed them his _wife_ and _ranch_ , Warriors stood there in mild shock as Time walked forward to Malon and gave her a kiss. The others started to talk excitedly as they wondered into the ranch, and Warriors followed along mutely, his mind racing.

His baby brother Mask had a house and a secure job and a beautiful lady to spend the rest of his life with!

_They grow up so fast._

And suddenly, his shoulders felt lighter, like a weight had been lifted off them, like knowing that the kid who followed him like a shadow during the war had a future in front of him that involved minimum death and battling.

There were not tears in his eyes. That he would deny until he was alone in his six foot pit called a grave.

After their introduction to Malon, and she did ring a bell, the kid that Time used to talk about when he talked of going home after the war, Time assigned them jobs to do on the ranch to keep them busy, and Warriors jumped right to it despite the fact that he had never worked on a farm once in his life.

Nobody wanted to see the kid that they babysat getting lovey dovey with his wife after all.

Despite his eagerness to get away from Time, that didn't stop from very confused at what exactly he was supposed to do with the horse equipment that Twilight had just placed on the floor while he sorted Espona out.

"What's wrong Captain? Too much of a city boy to know your way around a simple farm?" Legend called, looking rather strange without his cap to cover up the pink side of his hair.

"You better not be here to brag," Warriors moaned. He was still annoyed about the bet, but he tried to push it off. After all, it wasn't like it was a sign that he didn't know Time like he should have.

"No, but I do have a question for you," Legend asked as he helped Warriors with the equipment, picking up the other saddle from the floor. "You said that you knew Time when he was a kid, so if you knew him so well, why did you think that he would be married to the princess?"

"Isn't that how it's supposed to work? Hero saves the princess, they fall in love, get married, live happily ever after?" Because that what seemed to happen with Sky and his Zelda, now named Sun. Because that was what will happen to Wind and Tetra, written in the history books as one of the greatest romances ever seen, though he was never going to tell Wind any of that. Because that was going to happen to him and Artimis, right? He wasn't blind, he could see the advisors pushing it from her end and his men asking about it from his own. That's just what happened, wasn't it?

"Well, I fucking hope not. I am not marrying my sister." Legend said like he wasn't dropping a bomb of news onto Warriors fragile mind. "It's not how it works, and if anyone tries to tell you otherwise, punch them."

"I can't go around punching people, I have a reputation to maintain thank you." Warriors said as he slicked his hair back, though Legend didn't seemed to be very impressed with him. "So, if not the princess, surely someone like you have your eyes on someone."

"Uhh... Not really?" Warriors raised his eyebrow at the hesitation in Legend's voice. "But I am married to Ravio. For tax purposes only! Which means that I can't exactly try and start dating someone when everything thinks I'm married to Ravio, I don't want them thinking I'm cheating on him or something, it's bad enough for his business that I'm never around, it would be worse if they only went to comfort a guy being cheated on."

Warriors stared at Legend, and wondered where in Hyrule he was supposed to start to unpack that.

"Ahh there you guys are!" Malon said with a smile as she popped her head around the corner, and Warriors took the distraction with excitement, because dealing with Ravio's depression about Legend's obviousness had been bad, but dealing with it first hand was a bit much, even for him.

"Warriors can I have your help with something? Link said you were decent with anything to do with the government , and I still have to work out what taxes-" Warriors threw the saddle into Legend's hands, ignoring the cry of alarm that Legend gave before following Malon back to the house.

Time knew how much Warriors hated dealing with the paperwork his position gave him, so he probably said that to be a brat, but the joke was on him, because now he got to listen to Warriors moan about Legend and being as bad a Ravio said that he was.

"It's nothing major, just a couple of questions I have about it," Malon rambled, despite Warriors smiling and saying that it's fine, really it is, he's too much of a city boy to really that much help around the ranch anyways.

He helped Malon bring the tea to the table as she brought the paper out onto the table and started filling it in with pretty quill, probably a gift.

"So, first question, was your name really 'Mister Captain Hero Sir' during the War of Eras or did Link just make that bit up to be dramatic?" Warriors let out a groan as he hit his head against the table loudly, taking a deep breath as Malon started to laugh loudly.

"I take it as a yes then."

"I thought you said that you needed help with your forms!" Warriors moaned as he lifted his head up from the table. He hoped he hadn't given himself a red mark, or Goddess forbit, a bruise. It would throw off his completion completely and there was no way that he could style his hair in a way that would look presentable and cover up his forehead.

"Please, I've been doing these forms since I was old enough to understand what they said," Malon said with a giggle. "See, my father was useless at them and it's not like Link can read no matter what we've tried to do to teach him."

"Oh don't even start!" Warriors said, throwing his hands up. "Soldiers are expected to be able to read so they know what their orders are, but any time we tried to teach him to read during the war, but he was hopeless." Warriors took a sip of his tea. "Wait, if he sends you letters, what exactly does he send you?"

"Oh, just drawing of what he sees around, and of you guys. Most of the time it means I have to guess what is going on in them but they're actually quite cute, so I refuse to throw them away. I'll show you if you tell me all the embarrassing things that he got up to when he was with you."

"Of course!"

Warriors decided that he really liked Malon.


	8. Chapter 8

They stay in Time's Hyrule for a couple of days, and by the time a dark portal appears to take them somewhere, Warriors is drowning in information.

Of course, there were the things that Legend had decided to tell him (how someone didn't notice that the man they were _married_ to had a _crush_ on them was unbelievable and Warriors didn't like to think about it), and there was the fact that Time decided to tell Malon absolutely everything about what happened to him (which was a relief to hear honestly, because it meant that at least someone else in his world knew what happened to him, at least someone else was around to give him the support he needed), but it was because Warriors had information that he knew that he would be able to use against Time, and he was going to hold onto that information until needed.

He made sure to give Malon a proper goodbye, and he wondered if he should start sending her letters too, if only so she actually knew what was going on and not the out of context drawings she was getting from Time.

The next couple of Hyrule's were uneventful. they had no heroes of their own, so the group spend their time looking for leads for what was causing the black blooded monsters to walk into different Hyrules. They, unfortunately, were not getting any closer to their answers when they arrived in Legend's Hyrule.

Legend went silent when he realised where he was with the exception to tell everyone where they were. The others had to keep a fast to keep up with Legend, who was leading them... somewhere.

"Do you know where we're going?" Warriors asked Hyrule, because out of all of them, Hyrule had the world that would be closest to Legend's.

"Oh. No idea, but it's pretty exciting to see a new place. I wonder where he's taking us..." Hyrule mused. Warriors hummed in agreement.

He did always wonder when it came to Legend.

Legend didn't slow down once during the walk, and when they seemed to appear by their destination, a small shop that was located a little south-east from the castle, he didn't stop as he walked in, slamming the door open and having no reaction when the door slammed against the wall before trying to swing back, only to be stopped by Warriors hand, if only the door didn't completely knock poor Wind out.

"It's a bit rude to walk into a shop like that..." Wild muttered as they followed closely behind, and watched as Legend started to look.

"That's because it's my house as well as a shop." Legend muttered out as he looked around with, before his face relaxed and he took a deep breath. "He's back." He breathed out.

"Who's back?" Twilight asked as every started to look at

"-And then Mr Hero was like, oh here he is now!" The group turned to the speaker, and Warrior's eyes widen when he saw who it was.

Ravio did it. He managed to get home without Lana's help.

"And where in the Goddess's holy sacred name, may she spit on my grave when I die, have you been? House empty, no note, the mirror gone... you could have died... out of my mind with worry... Where were you?!" The group looked at each other at Legend's sudden outburst, while Warriors took the time to admire the look of fear that covered Ravio's face.

He did look remarkably like Legend without the mask and the hood. Was that why he normally wore it?

"Oh you do care Mr Hero!" Ravio said as he threw his arms around Legend, who accepted the hug, burring his head into his shoulder for a second, before pulled back and looked at Ravio.

"Of course I care! That doesn't answer where you've been!"

"It's an interesting story, but you'll be happy to know that I've been working on my bravery like you said I should!" Ravio said with a smile.

"I meant making your own appointments with Irene instead of getting me to do for you, not jumping into a weird dark portals and partaking in wars that have nothing to do with you." Legend exclaimed.

"Should we get involved?" Time whispered to him, but Warriors shook his head.

"Nah." Warriors said as he drank up the scene. "This is the best entertainment I've seen since the time that Impa found out that Sheik was Zelda the whole time." Time snorted at the memory.

"But Liiiiiink! I hate making appointments." Ravio moaned as he looked around the room before his eyes landed on Warriors.

Warriors felt his stomach feel with dread.

Ravio smiled when he recognised him.

He wouldn't _dare_...

But he really would.

"Oh hey Mister Captain Hero- Ah!" Ravio screamed as Warriors picked up the nearest object to him, which just so happened to be a heavy book, and threw it at him with all his might. Ravio had to duck out of the way to avoid getting hit with the book, and they both ignored Legend and Four's yelling about throwing important texts.

"You know, I've had the most peaceful two years without seeing you guys, but noooooo, the Goddess fucking Hylia really won't just give me a bloody break, will she? Am I asking for too much?" Warriors said as he walked out of the room, tuning out Legend lecturing Ravio as he stomped hard at the ground in hopes it will get his frustration out.

It didn't, but it did make him realise how relieved he was to learn that Ravio had managed to get back home safely.

He did need to learn to stay aware of his surroundings, however, because he did not notice that he was about to walk into someone until far too late.

"Oh I am so sorr- Marin?" Warriors helped the girl up from where he had knocked her over.

"Captain? No offence but we weren't expecting to see you ever again!" Marin said with a smile as she picked up her basket.

"Same here. Lana's pissed at what you guys did by the way." Warriors said awkwardly. Marin nodded. They stood in silence for a second.

"Are you not going to say hi to Le-Link?" Warriors asked.

"I'm going to wait until it calms down in there Mister Captain Hero Sir, Link still think's I'm dead, and he doesn't do well with shocking news." Marin said. Warriors screwed his face at the nickname, but before he could say anything to show his annoyance, the door to the shop was thrown open, and Warriors turned his head just in time to see Legend's face loose all colour, while Ravio winced from just behind him.

Warriors could hear Time cackling from where he stood.

* * *

Ten minutes later, Warriors found himself with a mug of tea that Wild had been so nice to make, while he sat around a table with Legend, Ravio and Marin, while Time had taken the rest of the heroes to Kakariko to buy some extra supplies that they might need for when Warriors finally decides Ravio had been too annoying.

"I still don't know why I'm here." Warriors said as he placed his mug on the table. "I really don't want to be in the middle of all this."

"You're the only person who knows what's going on, so that makes you the perfect choice to mediate Mister Capt-"

"I dare you to finish that sentence, Sir Purple Bunbun." Warriors said to Ravio, who wisely shut his mouth and sunk into his chair.

"How did this happen?" Legend whispered as he continued to stare at Marin. She smiled at him and placed a hand on top of his own, pinching at his skin slightly to show that, yes, she was there, and, no, this wasn't a dream.

"Remember when I told you that I made a wish to the Wind Fish?" She asked, smiling when Legend nodded. "Well, I wished for a chance to escape and see the rest of Hyrule, and then this portal appeared in front of me! It was just after you said goodbye, and I was desperate. I knew that you would wake the Wind Fish, so I left, and I appeared in another Hyrule that was at war. After the war ended, I was told that I would have to back to my own time, but Ravio decided that he was going to get us back here, and here we are."

"And Ti-Mask was in on this, wasn't he?" Warriors asked, and Marin nodded at him with a smile.

"Without his gift we wouldn't have been able to get back here." She said as she placed a blue ocarina onto the table. "I'll have to give it back to him soon. He's the man with the missing eye, isn't he?"

"That's him." Warriors nodded. Legend took a hold of Main's hand and started to move his thumb around in circles on top of it. Ravio looked upset that he wasn't being treated the same way, looking away pointedly from the cuteness.

"What are we going to say about you living here?" Legend asked out loud.

"'Living here'?" Marin asked, clearly expected to be kicked out by the end of the conversation or something.

Clearly it wasn't only the army that had no braincells.

"Well, duh, I ain't gonna kick you out or anything, but no one's gonna believe that I'm gonna let you into my house out the goodness of my heart." That, honestly, sounded like Legend's problems over anyone else's, since it was completely his fault that he acted like he hated everyone.

"Why don't you just say that you're all in a relationship, because that's accepted in this Hyrule last I checked." Warriors asked. Ravio spat out his tea, and Marin started coughing. Legend just looked at him blackly.

"I don't want to trap her into a lie like that! It's bad enough that Ravio's stuck being married to me-"

"Mr Hero I asked you to marry me, it wasn't the other way around-"

"Wait, you two are married and you didn't tell me? Ravio why didn't you tell me-"

Warriors rolled his eyes as they all started arguing, sitting back in his chair. How lucky Time was not to be here right now. He envied him.

Warriors closed his eyes as the arguing escalated, growing louder and louder as Marin and Ravio tried to break the news softly to Legend that they loved him, and Legend continued to be completely oblivious to their hidden meanings. Warriors had missed these people sure, but not the arguing that they caused. At least Midna wasn't here to contribute.

Actually, that's a good point...

"Where's Midna?" Warriors asked. The trio stopped their arguing to look at Warriors, and Marin and Ravio stared at each other.

"We left Midna and Shadow in Kakariko..." Marin said slowly. Warriors felt his stomach drop to the bottom of the world, hurlding towards the place where Warriors always imagined contained Ganondorf's sealed soul.

"Who the fuck is Shadow? Never mind, I don't care. Kakariko. Where we sent the rest of the heroes?" Warriors said. His headache was back, and it was painful.

"What's wrong with that?" Ravio asked.

"Hero of Twilight ring a bell? Right. I'm going to have to catch up with the others before someone commits a murder. You guys better make up by the time we're back, remember that you all have two hands or whatever." Warriors said as he quickly got up and ran out of the room, slamming the door behind him.

"What does he mean, two hands?" Legend asked. Marin and Ravio only gave each other a look of pain and frustration. This was going to be a long night.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Sorry for the long time to update! Everything is catching me, so sorry that everything is taking some time to get updated, especially everything thats already written out from lws.


	9. Chapter 9

Warriors just barely made it to the rest of the group before they got to Kakariko, and Warriors counts his luckiest stars that he did.

(If Linkle were here and knew what he just thought, she would tell him not to could the cucco eggs before they hatch. Warriors, if he had heard that phrase at that moment of time, would have just told her that was the wrong phase, but he would be oh so wrong.)

"Everything good with Legend and his..." Sky trailed off, wondering what he should be calling Ravio and Marin.

"It's complicated." Warriors shrugged.

"Then why are you here?" Hyrule asked. "Surely you'd be able to help them out and make it easier for them?" Time let out a snort at Hyrule's comment, but when they looked at his face, it was as blank as ever.

"It's not a complicated I can help with. They're just gonna have to grow a pair and actually tell him how they feel." The rest of the group seemed to get the message to Wild smiled at Hyrule and dragged him to the back, whispering all the while, Twilight following them to make sure they didn't decide to wonder off.

"So now what's the real reason you joined up to Kakariko?" Time muttered to Warriors as they took up the lead, Warriors still a bit out of breath.

"Who else went through the mirror?" Warriors asked.

"Midna... She's in Kakariko?" Time whispered as they both looked behind to give Twilight a glance, just to see if he reacted. Twilight hadn't told the group about Midna yet, or at least, not to Time or Warrior's knowledge, so they respected that and never talked of it.

"Yeah, with someone called Shadow..." Warriors mused as the houses of the village started to come into view.

"Do you think that Shadow would be related to our... situation?" Time asked.

"Nah, I don't think that that Ravio and Marin would let that happen, and Midna's always looking for a fight." Warriors let out a little shiver as a memory of Midna fighting came to mind. She was not someone he wanted to be on the bad side of.

"You need to stick with Twilight then, when we split up to get supplies." Time said after a second of silence as they continued forward into the village, ignoring the weird looks they got for having such a large group.

"What!? Why me?" Warriors moaned. He really didn't want to deal with Midna right now, not after dealing with Ravio and the headache that always brings was one that Warriors would always remember, no matter how long ago it was.

"Because Midna will recognise you, she's not going to be recognise me." Warriors frowned a Time's rather sound logic.

"I'm not going by myself." Warriors stated with his arms crossed. Time nodded. They would need someone to stop Warriors from committing a crime with little to no regret for when Midna called him the Name.

"Fine. Take Four, he's pretty open and level-headed when it comes to these things. You can pick up some more bottles if you find them, but if not, then potions will be fine, and I think Four wants to look at the blacksmiths. Me, Wind and Hyrule will have a look for arrows and the like, and Sky and Wild can pick up whatever food they need." Time laid out the plan to him, and Warriors nodded with a smile. Look at how much he had grown, to the point that he now came up with a sensible plan!

"Sounds like a plan." Warriors said before Time turned around and relayed the plan. Luckily, Twilight didn't seemed to be suspicious of the groupings, but Four was.

"Normally it's you, Legend and Hyrule looking for potions." Four said to him with a blank face. Warriors rolled his eyes.

"Yeah, and Legend isn't here and it takes him or Time to stop Hyrule from wondering off. Wild isn’t trusted with potions after last time, Sky’s fussy when it comes with food, and Time and Wind are the fussiest when it comes to what arrows they use." Warriors was pretty proud of that lie he had come up with. No one could stop Hyrule from wondering off, as, well, Wild still wasn’t trusted with potions after he had dosed them all with a truth potion that one time.

And then it was time to split.

Warriors followed Twilight and Four as they started to look around for a place where they could for bottles and potions, but then they asked the only vendor if he had any, he only smiled at them and said that he didn't, that he sold out nearly eight years ago, which seemed to be very pointless.

So they quickly gave up on the idea of looking for any potions or bottles (they were just going to have to ask Wild to make some, but while potions never tasted good, Wild's were always worse) and started looking for the blacksmith that Four wanted to find, something about proving Wild wrong? Warriors rarely followed along with Four's frustration with Wild's ability to break his sword.

They nearly made it to the blacksmiths before someone called out to them.

"Mister Captain Hero Sir?" Warriors quickly pulled his sword and attacked, swiping downward at the woman, who jumped back in alarm and held her arms out. It was no one he had ever seen before, easily towering over him like a Geurdo from Wild's era, with long orange hair, and a long black dress so dark that it seemed to melt into the shadows.

"How do you know that name?" The woman's eyes widened before frowning.

"Jeeze, the first time you see a friend in a while and you attack them?" She asked as she crossed her arms over her chest, and Warriors racked his mind trying to come up as to where he could have possibly seen the woman before, but he came up with a blank. He had never seen her before. He raised his sword higher, keeping an eye on the way that the woman's hand began to glow with dark magic.

"Midna!" The pair turned to stare at Twilight, the woman's magic slowly disappearing while Warriors lowered his sword somewhat.

"You're supposed to be in the Twilight Realm..." He whispered, slowly taking a step forward, his eyes unblinking as he took all of her in. Warriors frowned. Sure, she was pretty, but surely not so pretty that Twilight was completely lost for words?

"There's no way that that's Midna!" Warriors said as he continued to point his sword at the woman. "Midna's tiny! Barely Four's height!"

"Hey!"

"Now, tell me how you know that name!" Warriors shouted at her, raising his sword higher. The woman let out a huff of frustration.

"We called you that name during the War of Eras!"

"Nice try Dink, but you can't fool me by making believe your a hotter version of Mid-" Warriors let out a squeal as Four seemed to have enough of Warriors and pushed him to the ground.

That was harsh, especially for Four.

The woman let out a laugh at the action, throwing her head back and putting her hands around her stomach, and it was such a Midna move that Warriors had to sit there and blink at her.

What in Din's earth, Nayru's water and Farore's wind happened in the time since he had last seen her for that to happen???

"What are you even doing here?" Twilight asked. Midna rolled her eyes but she calmed down from her laughing fit nevertheless.

"I can ask you the same thing Link..." Midna said, brushing his hair out of his face and over his tattoos, Twilight leaning into the touch. Midna frowned, before looking back to Warriors "Cia's not involved again is she? Because I know for a fact that while I'm not supposed to be here, you lot should definitely not be here."

"Nope." Warriors said as he put the white sword back and dusted himself off.

"Can someone please explain to me what's going on?" Four asked as he looked between the three others of the group. Warriors and Midna both shared a look, both opening their mouths to answer the question before a new voice beat them too it.

"It's a pretty long, complicated story, and you're not going to believe the shit that I to go though to-" The rest of the new person's sentence was cut off by Four body slamming him to the floor and... was he crying? It was hard to tell.

Warriors took a closer look at the boy that Four was now sobbing on, and he just looked like Four, but completely made up from, well, shadows.

Warriors had seen this before the war, where Dark Link had created copies of people to try and make demoralising for the army to fight. It had worked, and they had been very dangerous, but before Warriors could pull his sword free and attack, Midna took a hold of his arm.

"Don't you dare." She muttered, but before Twilight or Warriors could ask for more clarification, Four sat up on top of the person who must have been Shadow and... started punching his chest?

"You. Stupid. Idiot. What were you thinking!?" Four started screaming at him,

"Please, we know that Vio has the braincell out of all of us," Shadow smiled at Four, who only hiccupped as he began to sob again into his shoulder.

"If anyone asks, I'm drinking my sorrows away. I'm not being paid enough for this." Warriors muttered as he started to walk off in a random direction, one that was definitely not the direction of Legend's house or even the castle. He had no idea where he was going except away, and that was enough for him.

"But you're not getting paid..." Twilight called out to him.

"Exactly!"

"See ya later Mister Captain Hero Sir!" Midna called out, waving to his back. Warriors let out a scream of frustration in response.


	10. Chapter 10

When Warriors came out of the woods two days later, his headache finally gone after the long rest, the rest of the group had already came up with a plan of action.

"So Midna's going to be getting back to Twilight's time using the mirror while Shadow comes along with us?" Warriors asked the group, who all nodded back at him.

"Uh, is that your portal outside?" Marin asked as she looked back out the window. Legend went to join her, and frowned when he confirmed that, yes, that was one of their portals.

"Yeah it is, but we haven't defeated any of the black blooded monsters yet. It's far too early for the portal to be arriving." Twilight muttered as he stared out of the window with them. Warriors rolled his eyes.

"I took care of it last night." He said, ignoring the look of disbelief from the rest of your group.

"By yourself?" Wind asked.

"Is that so hard to believe?" Warriors asked, deciding not to tell them it was only a swarm of Wild's keese, and underneath his clothing was a multitude of bite marks that were very itchy.

"I guess not," Wind said as everyone started packing up their equipment and saying goodbyes to those not coming along with them. Legend received a kiss from both Ravio and Marin, and Twilight and Midna gave a hug before they left.

"Bye Mister Captain Hero Sir! Safe journey you guys!" Ravio waved from the doorway, but by the time that Warriors heard the cursed nickname, it was already too late, and he was in another world.

\--break line--

The next couple of months are the busiest that Warriors has ever had in his life.

About a month ago, they had been in his Hyrule, and after telling everyone that, yes, the tenth member of their group was safe and wouldn't betray them ("again," Four said as he glared at Shadow. "You're one to talk." Shadow had moaned back.), they finally got in touch with Lana and Cia to find out the cause of the dark portals and what they all knew about it.

Cia at least had the decency to look awkward when it was revealed to them that it was her fault that they were being targeted by the shadows.

"The spell I used was supposed to use the darkness found in the Hero's Spirit against them, it's not my fault that it reacted like this." She had said, crossing her arms and turning away from the group, giving Shadow the dirtiest glare before going back to wherever her and Lana hang around these days.

"I'm still working on softening her up," Lana tried to excuse with a smile but Warriors just raise an eyebrow at her, as he hadn't been in the mood to mess around that morning, not after having to listen to his men go on about how he and the princess should be married already.

Either way, they had left that meeting with Lana with a way to get rid of Dark Link. Now they just had to find him, but after a solid month of searching and going through Hryule's faster than Wild did swords, a lot of them were losing hope that it was ever going to happen.

"C'mon, we're so close! We can't give up now!" Wind said as they approached another dark portal, which would now be the third one that week.

"We need to take a break, this is getting exhausting, and we're no closer to finding Dark Link." Twilight said as he carried an injured Wild on his back. For once, the kid hasn't tried to sacrifice himself, but much rather singled out my lizalfos that were way too smart.

The rest of the group hummed in agreement with him as they stepped through the portal, and they all let out a sigh of relief when, just in front of the darkness, they recognised Legend's house.

"Same rules as before, if you can see it, you can't touch it." Legend said as he welcomed everyone in. "That goes especially for you Wind." Wind let out a quiet huff as everyone tried to move around the house as quietly as they could as to not wake up

"Oh Link! You're finally back!" The group turned in sync, just in time for all of them to see Ravio take the biggest yawn they had ever seen, before he smiled at the group. "You all look like you've been busy."

"A hero's job never stops," Warriors joked, and it gained a laugh from some of the others.

"Where's Marin?" Legend asked, and Ravio frowned.

"She's visiting Zelda. Something about bonding together or something." Ravio muttered before stretching. "Right, I'm going to make some tea, it looks like you guys need it."

"I'll help," Legend and Warriors said at the same time, and they glared at each other for a second before realising that, perhaps, that this was not the time to be making an argument. Wild let out a moan and tried to stand up, only to be pulled back down by Hyrule and Twilight before getting lectured about the dangers of doing anything strenuous while injured.

Warriors followed Legend and Ravio to the kitchen, and felt slightly awkward being in the room with the pair, especially when the two lovebirds weren't talking about anything, but there was something he needed to find out, and he wasn't going to get that done by sitting back and waiting for tea to be served.

"Warriors, can you pass me some cups from the sink." Ravio said with a yawn. Warriors paused before he did so, before purposely relaxing his body and getting the cups that had been requested.

"Sure."

Once the tea had been made, Ravio attempted to help serve it to everyone, but Legend refused, telling him that Legend would sort it out. Ravio reluctantly agreed, and went back to his room. The room that was now supposed to be the spare room.

"I can't believe he disguised himself as my boyfriend." Legend growled as he threw the towel against the wall.

"He's not even doing a good job of it." Warriors muttered as he placed all of the cups onto a tray and took it out to where the rest of the group was staying. Legend followed behind him closely, sitting down next to Hyrule while Warriors started to hand out the tea, a fake smile plastered to his face.

"Good news! We have a lead for the black-blooded monsters!" Warriors said with a smile, but the rest of the group looked at each other in confusion.

"Black-blooded monsters? I thought we were looking fo-" Legend threw a hand over Hyrule's mouth, before pointing to where Ravio's bedroom. The rest of the groups' eyes widened at the revelation. The silence of the room became deafening.

Dark Link had just made this personal.

The only people who slept that night was Wild, who was still injured, and Sky, who couldn't function without sleep. Even Wind couldn't be coaxed into sleeping, so they had spent the while night waiting for the sun to rise, and wasted the time by playing card games while telling stupid stories, quietly of course to respect those who needed the sleep.

It was similar to the night that Warriors would spend up with Mask, where they would stare at the stars above all night and tell each other funny anecdotes, because there was a battle the next morning and it was making them nervous, making their stomachs feel like they had been pumped with lead.

As Warriors leaned against Time's shoulders as he laughed at a funny story told by Hyrule, he wondered if this would be the last day that the group would have together, and if it was, then the night had been well spent.

As the sun started to rise, and Wild woke up (because he had never heard of a lie in once in his life), they started to get prepared for the plan. They woke Sky up and started to get into position. Hyrule, Legend, Wind and Time were the most skilled with magical power, so after Legend had drawn the circle that was supposed to catch Dark Link and thrown his rug over it, the four of them sat down in the four of the five corners of it to power it.

Shadow and Four stood at the back of the circle along with Wild at the back, Four with his sword ready while Wild had an ancient arrow on his lap, ready to be notched while Warriors sat at the front, his own sword ready while Wolfie (because Twilight and Wolfie were the same thing apparently?) sat next to him.

Sky stood on the last corner, because while he did not have a lot of magical power or experience, he did have the Master Sword, which is what they were going to use to lock away Dark Link.

This is the most thorough plan that Warriors had ever been in, so it would make a lot of sense that it had been Lana to come up with the circle and his Impa with the plan.

"Good morning heroes! What seemed to be on the agenda today?" 'Ravio' said with a cheerful voice as he walked through the door, not noticing the weird arrangement that they were all in, and certainly not noticing the leg that Shadow had put out in his way, causing him to trip and let out a yell as he fell flat on his face.

"Hope you enjoyed your trip!" Shadow cackled as 'Ravio' stood up on the rug with a frown, turning around to look at the laughing Shadow, only to notice that Four and Wild had weapons pointing at him. A quick look around showed that the others were all the same, with swords and magic rods all pointing towards his way.

"What gave it away." He said, not dropping his image but dropping the cheerfulness from his voice.

"You called me Warriors, for a start." Warriors said as Wolfie growled lowly from next to him.

"That is your name right? I didn't get you mixed up with another one? That would be embarrassing." Dark Link said with a tilt to his head.

"No, but Ravio has never called me Warriors once. It's always Mister Captain Hero Sir with him." Warriors moaned.

"I thought that name makes you mad though?" Dark Link said as he crossed him arms.

"Oh. It does, just not as mad as I get when someone tries to impersonate my friend." Warriors growled as he lifted his sword higher towards him, the rest of the group following suit.

"So, what are you going to do? Kill me? I am a part of you, your darkest thoughts and deepest desires. No, you can't kill me, not when I am your true nemesis-"

"Can you please shut up, you're not even that good of a villain." Four moaned as he dropped his sword to his side as started to rub his forehead. Shadow patted his shoulder sympathetically.

"What?"

"Where's the drama, the performance, the spice! Anyone can be evil and have messed up morals and do the atrocities that you've done, but there's no point if you're not going to be dramatic about it." Four complained, looking close to tears with the frustration he was feeling, beginning to pace around while Shadow tried to calm him down.

"Wha- I am plenty dramatic!"

"Yeah, well, I can't take you seriously when you have the name Dink." Time said, which caused Wind and Hyrule to start giggling all over again, and even Warriors cracked a smile at the memory of baby Time telling him that one night when they couldn't sleep.

"That's not my- You guys never acted like this with Ganon!" Dark Link stomped his foot, like a three-year-old who couldn't get their own way, and Hyrule rolled his eyes.

"Ganon actually wants to try and kill us, and anyways, most of us here have faced scarier people than Ganon." Hyrule said with a sigh as Dark Link went over and kick the edge of the circle, only to be shocked.

"Like who?" Dark Link snarled.

"Maz Koshia" Wild supplied with a yawn.

"The Wind Fish." Wind and Legend added simultaneously.

"Midna that one time I called her Minnie." Warriors continued. 

"My Zelda that one time she found out that one of my classmates was being mean to me." Sky added.

"Hyrule's cooking," Four said, and the rest of the boys snorted in agreement.

"So... I don't scare you guys?"

"To be quite honest you didn't even hurt us that badly," Wind mused as he placed his hand to his face in thought, "The only times someone really got hurt was their own decisions or when Wild was going to be self-sacrificing."

"So, basically, what we're saying is that you're pretty much a failure at your job and you should give up and do something else instead." Warriors said with a smile as Wolfie laid down next to him in agreement.

"Well what am I supposed to do! I was literally made to be your opposites, and you're always the good guys which makes me a bad guy. But, I supposed I was always meant to fail, because you guys have never failed once in your quests." Dark Link spat at them, as if being self-deprecating was supposed to hurt their feelings.

"Dude. I literally worked for Ganon one time." Four said deadpanned. 

"I failed so badly that I had to have a 100-year power nap." Wild supplied. Time nodded along with him.

"My face started a war. Doesn't sound too successful to me." Warriors shrugged.

Dark Link stared at them in shock, before Time sighed.

"Look, just ignore everything you know about us for once second and think about yourself for a bit. What do you get out of hurting and/or killing us?" Time asked him.

"Other than the satisfaction of being able to do something that someone else couldn't?" Dark Link asked. Time nodded. "Hmm. Nothing really."

"Okay. And we've just made it clear that you weren't close to the goal of killing us." Sky said. "So, the million ruppee question is: what do you want to do with your life?"

"I don't know. Travelling between the Hyrules has been fun. Wait. You're not going to kill me?" Dark Link asked.

"Depends. Where's Ravio?" Legend growled out, and Warriors was impressed at how long he was able to hold back asking the question. At least he was able to follow along with the plan.

"He's at the castle with Marin and Zelda." Dark Link shrugged. Legend blinked at him in surprise, before Four let out a round of giggles.

"Oh Goddess you can't even do a proper kidnapping." Four was crying at this point. "Does this mean that Sky has a bigger criminal record than you?"

"I set monsters on you didn't I?" Dark Link growled.

"Technically not a crime." Hyrule pointed out.

"Ugh! You're so infuriating!" Dark Link moaned out as he crossed his arms and pouted on the ground.

"You like exploring?" Wild asked with a smile on his face. "See Flora found this creepy cave underneath the castle, and she thinks Ganon's corpse is there. You can come with if you want, but I get first dibs on poking the body with a stick." Dark Link looked at Wild with wide eyes before shrugging.

"Sure. Sound fun."

"Cool. Glad we got that sorted. I'm off to the castle to see Marin and Ravio. See you guys later." Legend said with a sigh before standing up and walking out of the house, closing the door behind him.

"Wait, that it?" Dark Link asked.

"Basically. Welcome to the group." Twilight said with a stretch as he yawned, his lack of sleep from the previous night getting to him.

"You need a nickname now! I'm not called you Dark Link, that's a mouthful." Wind said, with a smile.

"Hmm, how about Abyss?" Dark Link said.

"I prefer Dink though." Warriors replied teasingly. Dink rolled his eyes.

"Still better than Mister Captain Hero Sir."

He got a punch to the face for his troubles.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Omg thanks everyone for all the love and support I got for this fic, y'all are so nice to me! I will be working on the fic on how exactly Midna, Marin and Ravio managed to get from Warrior's Hyrule to Legend's, and how they managed to pick up Shadow along the way. Would people be interested to see those as lws? Lmk.

**Author's Note:**

> Please leave kudos and comments, it really means a lot to me. 
> 
> Come find me on tumblr @skiewrites :D


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